“Sharrow” lane markings have just been painted on a few streets in NW Portland. Here’s an excerpt from the official news release from the City of Portland:

The Portland Office of Transportation began installing “shared lane pavement markings” on three streets in northwest and southwest Portland today. Known as “sharrows,” these markings are intended to help cyclists better position themselves on roadways where bicycle lanes are the recommended treatment, but which cannot be striped for varying reasons.

They are 10 feet long and are part of federal experiment to monitor their effectiveness. They have already been adopted in San Francisco, CA and are standard treatment in that state.

I went out to visit these last night, and they look great!!! I’ve always felt a little uncomfortable taking the lane between Burnside and Everett if the light is green, as the cars get up a lot of speed down that hill as they cross Burnside. I did it anyway, but I noticed that I felt much more comfortable doing that with these beautiful, LARGE, visible markings!

This may be a little off the immediate topic, but I was curious about the laws regarding newly repaved roads. I was under the impression that new or repaved roads need to have bike lanes if possible. I noticed large sections of SE 39th being repaved but there definitely were no signs of bicycle lanes/sharrows being added. That street needs some bike lovin’ too, because its super high traffic & has small sidewalks – making it precarious accessing businesses & homes along the street.

The Bicycle Bill says that when roads are “constructed or reconstructed,” bicycle and pedestrian facilities must be provided. This has been interpreted through precedent to mean that the Bicycle Bill is applicable when a road is built where no road was before OR when the curb widths change. The definition of “reconstructed” doesn’t include maintenance resurfacing, as was done on 39th.

We should note as well that bicycle lanes aren’t the appropriate treatment for all streets. I wonder what Roger Geller, Portland’s Bicycle Coordinator, would recommend for 39th…if it were to have bike lanes, the street would have to be widened, which doesn’t seem very likely, what with all the buildings there. It also depends on how the street is classified in the Transportation System Plan, or TSP. My guess is that, if bicycle facilities were added, sharrows would be the way to go, but I don’t think anyone’s planning on doing anything to 39th in the near future.

There’s a really good parallel route to 39th through much of Southeast that I recommend; have you tried that? Here’s a description, and I’m guessing the bicycle boulevard markings should be going in on this street soon to make it clearer without needing a map.

Greetings from Toronto :) Cyclists here feel that we are on the brink of a major velorution for our currently smog-laden city. Learning about initiatives such as these Sharrows are key to our lobby efforts (thank you!). There has already been response from City Council on the idea, but they need to know if there have been any studies or indication as to the effect of the Sharrows on safety for cyclists. Any direction would be of help.
Cheers!

Marge, here’s a link to the San Francisco study that started it all–they found improved, safer lane positioning for riders as a result of the markings. It may be useful in petitioning your leaders, as it can show proven results.

“Putting in bike lanes is exactly what the Other Urban Repair Squad does. Last week, the group of vigilante cyclists hit a stretch of Bloor between Ossington Ave. and Dufferin St. [read the whole article…] “
I naturally do not condone…

[...] to build, and people will use them. An alternate approach would be the guerrilla application of sharrows, iconic indicators that bicycles are entitled to take the lane as needed. These are more powerful [...]

[...] Other areas, such as the one-way section of Petaluma Ave. and Bodega Ave. , are too narrow for even Class 2 bike lanes. San Francisco pioneered the sharrows concept – markings of a bike with two chevrons/arrows above it on the streets that designate a shared lane. Other cities have adopted the idea, including Portland, as noted by BikePortland: [...]

[...] This option would remove all bike lanes from Alder and convert it to two-way car traffic. “Sharrows” might be painted on the road to show cars that they need to share the road. Sharrows are [...]